5. A Journey
In Qian Julie Wang's powerful memoir about growing up as an illegal immigrant in America, she and her mother make a life-changing journey, and the past catches up. Katie Leung reads.
Beautiful Country is Qian Julie Wang's powerful and moving debut. Here she tells of her childhood growing up as an undocumented illegal immigrant with her parents, who had both been professors back home in China. Here they labour at menial, degrading jobs, and Qian Julie vividly describes the sweatshops and sushi factories where she and her mother undertake gruelling work, for little pay. Fear of the immigration authorities, poverty and hunger are the family's constant companions. In school, Qian Julie is quickly marked out as an outsider, and loneliness compounds her impoverished life. When illness strikes, the family is terrified as they are compelled to emerge from the shadows. Qian Julie's past has left an indelible mark, but as she looks back on her childhood what emerges is a portrait of grit and determination to overcome hardship.
Qian Julie Wang is a graduate of Yale Law School, and is a managing partner of a law firm advocating for education, disability and civil rights. She lives in Brooklyn. This is her first book.
Katie Leung first came to public attention for playing Cho Chang in the Harry Potter franchise. Recent television roles include Chimerica, Roadkill, and The Nest.
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
Spiritual reflection to start the day with writer and broadcaster, Anna Magnusson
In 1961 Alfredo Duran was part of a group of CIA-trained Cuban exiles who invaded the island to try to overthrow Fidel Castro's revolutionary government.
He tells Witness how the scheme went badly wrong, and how the promise of help from the Americans never came.
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
Leicester was hit hard by the pandemic with long lockdowns and many families affected. At Watermead Country Park close to the city they have chosen to remember those who lost their lives, the essential workers and everyone who has played their part in these hard times. Trees have been planted along a new memorial walk in this park, which was once a huge quarry.
Roo Peake helped to crowdfund for the walk in memory of her friend and fellow charity member at Leicestershire Masaya Link, Michael Gerard. Helen Mark meets her, along with the Head of County Parks Richard Hunt and Head Ranger Dale Osborne, to discover more about how this park on the edge of the city is constantly adapting as it grows from reclaimed industrial land to a thriving habitat for wildlife and sanctuary for people nearby.
Helen then travels to the National Memorial Arboretum in the National Forest to find out about the beginnings of a national Covid memorial which will use trees and water to heal the scars left by industry and help the whole country find a place to remember.
Radio 4's Saturday morning show brings you extraordinary stories and remarkable people.
Personal stories inspired by Massive Attack's breakthrough single. Featuring the vocals of Shara Nelson, the track together with its iconic video would help catapult this band from Bristol onto the global stage. Stories include the photographer Giles Duley whose work was displayed during the song at the band's 2016 homecoming show in Bristol. Mountaineer Dmitry Golovchenko who named an attempt on the Nepalese mountain of Jannu after the track, and solicitor Marti Burgess who saw early sets from The Wild Bunch, the collective from which Massive Attack emerged, and for whom 'Unfinished Sympathy' helped crystallise her identity. Music Producer Ski Oakenfull deconstructs the track, peeling back the layers of beats, bells and samples. Belgian singer Liz Aku recorded a version of the track during lockdown, bringing back memories of her first love. Melissa Chemam, author of 'Massive Attack Out Of The Comfort Zone' explains the origins of Massive Attack, how 'Unfinished Sympathy' was written and why, when the track was released in 1991, the band had to drop the word 'Attack' from their name. A radio producer and DJ who spent New Year's Eve in a detox centre in London was asked to pick the tune to be played at midnight, and she chose 'Unfinished Sympathy'.
Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week via topical stand-up and sketches in the BBC's Radio Theatre in front of a remote audience.
Joining them from a safe distance is Athena Kugblenu and Geoff Norcott with music supplied by Huge Davies.
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from Slough and Eton CofE Business and Enterprise College with the Economics Editor at The Spectator Kate Andrews, Charlie, Falconer, Baron Falconer of Thoroton, QC, Labour peer and barrister, the Chief Executive of the New Economics Foundation Miatta Fahnbulleh and the Labour MP and the Minister for Vaccines and Public Health Maggie Throup MP.
The Pallisers. Dramatised by Sharon Oakes based on the novels by Anthony Trollope.
Lady Glencora has tragically died. But she is still a presence in her family. Plantagenet is bereft, but he has to protect and guide his grown up children Silverbridge and Mary. Plantagenet is against Frank Tregear marrying Mary but desperately wants Silverbridge to marry Lady Mabel Grex. Will his plans come true?
Tregear........................................................Prasanna Puwanarajah
Isabel...........................................................Julianna Jennings
Nick Robinson returns for another series where he has a conversation with - not an interrogation of - a leading political figure, someone who shapes our political thinking, about what shaped theirs. This week he talks to the Leader of the Opposition, Sir Keir Starmer.
Clive Anderson and Sara Cox are joined, amongst others, by Sting, Dame Siân Phillips and Harry Hill for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Sting and Abi Farrell.
The idea for the four year old pigchild was dreamt up in a London pub by three out of work mates in the 90s. She’s now the inspiration for theme parks across the world, and they are worth millions.
After the prime minister declared his love for her in front of the UK’s leading business people, Mark Coles explores how Peppa Pig has become one the most recognisable characters on television.
Musician Evelyn Glennie talks to John Wilson about her career and some of the key cultural turning points of her life. From growing up in rural Aberdeenshire and becoming profoundly deaf at a young age, she traces her route to fulfilling her ambition of being the first full-time solo percussionist. She recalls her early musical influences; her teacher, the renowned percussionist James Blades at the Royal Academy of Music, and her electrifying 1992 BBC Proms performance of James MacMillan's percussion concerto Veni, Veni, Emmanuel.
Concrete cows. First World War soldiers waiting at twenty-first century train stations. A concrete cast of a house. These are just some of the manifestations of public and community art that have captured the attention of the British public over the last 50 years. These are three well-known examples among thousands, of the efforts of artists to change the fabric of the environments in which we live, work and play. This year, the Turner prize shortlist consists of five artists’ collectives from around the UK: groups whose work does not principally belong in galleries; work that does not seek, as its principal focus, to present an admiring public with artefacts of beauty in hallowed halls of culture.
This ‘movement’, for want of a better term, continues to intrigue, puzzle, delight, and exasperate the public to whom it is offered. But what is it? Does it change society? Is it good? How do we assess it? Or are we hampered by an outdated and hard-to-shake-off idea of what an artist is, and how and where they present their work to us?
Looking back over the last 50 years and more, art historian Dr James Fox investigates the historical antecedents of this year’s Turner Prize shortlist. Drawing on the BBC archive and contemporary interviews, he disentangles some of the many threads of art practice that have been visible in the public domain; and talks to curators, practitioners, participants and arts professionals about the work they have presented. What makes it good? How do we compare it with a great master painting? Do we have the necessary critical and analytical vocabulary to make sense of this work?
James’s journey, both historical and geographical, takes him from Fife in Scotland to the south coast of England. On the way he visits Milton Keynes, the largest and most ambitious of Britain’s post-war new towns, where public and community art were seen as critically important elements of the nascent identity of a brave new settlement. James considers the work of important organisations such as the Artist’s Placement Group in the 1960’s and 70’s, and the activity of Project Artworks, whose nomination for this year’s Turner Prize is a tribute to 20 years of work that identifies a crossing point between art, care, and social activism.
This story, which might seem peripheral to the mainstream, is in fact one that looks deep into the qualities of the society that we might seek to live in. James Fox is our guide through a complex creative maze.
Brief Lives by Tom Fry and Sharon Kelly. Ep 3 of 6
A high powered lawyer and her daughter are arrested for possession of drugs after a house party. But when our team of paralegals investigate they find a cat's cradle of other motives.
A young couple thrown together by a sudden downpour are on the brink of a declaration.
An insightful story inspired by Thomas Hardy's poem of unrequited love. By Lucy Ribchester.
Writer ..... Lucy Ribchester
Reader ..... Catriona McFarlane
Producer ..... Eilidh McCreadie
Kirsty Wark brings together well control experts, US Coast Guard Officials and environmentalists who fought to contain a massive off-shore oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig suffered a catastrophic blowout and exploded in April 2010.
For the next 87 days, BP engineers tried to staunch the flow of crude oil gushing out of the well on the ocean floor. An estimated 184 million gallons were spilt, 18 times the amount spilled by the Exxon Valdez, making it the largest accidental marine oil spill in the world, and the largest environmental disaster in US history.
As oil coated more than 1,000 miles of coastline in six US states, Americans grew more and more angry. A group calling itself “Seize BP” held demonstrations in 50 US cities, calling for the company to be stripped of its assets. BP’s CEO Tony Hayward was told by an angry US Congressional panel that his company had shown a reckless lack of attention to safety. After the company’s share price plummeted and 12 billion pounds was wiped off its value in a single day, Tony Hayward was forced to resign.
The programme includes: Mark Mazzella, BP’s resident well-control expert, who fought on and off-shore to stop the oil flowing before finally capping it; Admiral Thad Allen, National Incident Commander, who was in charge of the federal response; PJ Hahn, then Director of coastal zone management for Plaquemines parish, Louisiana, which was on the front line of the oil spill; Keith Jones, whose son Gordon worked on the Deepwater Horizon rig and was killed in the accident; and Bob Kaluza one of two BP supervisors on the rig that night.
The celebrity panel game about quotations, hosted by Nigel Rees, returns with a series celebrating its 500th programme.
- Nick Robinson, host of the Today programme and former political editor of BBC News and ITV News
It’s 2017 and Charli is alone in New York, trying to carve out a modelling career. She accepts a room in a shared house with a local couple, but they have not been entirely honest with her. The previous resident of the room fled in fear and Charli is about to experience her very own dose of terror at the hands of a malicious male spirit.
As objects go flying and the house resounds to terrifying noises, Charli decides to take matters into her own hands. Can she exorcise her supernatural stalker?
SUNDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2021
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m00120jw)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:15 The Poetry Detective (m001140p)
Episode One
A new series about the poems we carry with us through life. Poems that speak to us so strongly that we return to them in times of confusion or fear… loneliness or joy… love or doubt. Some of us might scribble these words on Post Its and stick them next to the mirror or on the fridge door. Some of us send them to friends or read them at funerals. Some of us mutter them under our breath like a mantra in moments of stress. Some of us ink them permanently into our skin.
The poet Vanessa Kisuule speaks to people about the poems - and bits of poems - that mean the most to them. She finds out why the poems matter, and then unfolds the backstory of the poem itself - who wrote it, what was the context it came out of and how does it work on us.
In episode one, Vanessa explores poems that have been handed down through families. For Juan Dickinson, there are lines of Louis MacNeice's poetry which will forever remind him of his late dad - who used MacNeice's verse to impart life lessons to his son. But he's never known much about MacNeice the man - can Glenn Patterson help fill in the blanks?
Meanwhile, Eleanor Penny has a poem in her family that she's never been able to identify - found in her grandad's pocket after his death. Can Chris McCabe, Librarian at the National Poetry Library help Vanessa track down the source?
Produced in Bristol by Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m00120jy)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m00120k0)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m00120k2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m00120k4)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m00120dh)
The church of St Lawrence Jewry, in London
Bells on Sunday comes from the church of St Lawrence Jewry, in London. The church was built by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire and its original ring of six bells was increased to eight in 1710. When these bells were destroyed in the Blitz in December 1940, the metal was saved and recast into the present ring of eight. We hear them ringing Spliced Surprise Major.
SUN 05:45 Profile (m00120cv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Summary (m00120bm)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b09jbrv6)
Having Enough
In a programme marking Hanukkah, rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand examines our culture of materialism and abundance, and the prevalent feeling of not having enough.
In the story of Hannukah, the Maccabees - a band of Jewish rebels - have only enough oil to keep the fire in their temple alight for a single day following its desecration at the hands of the tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes. God intervenes and the Maccabees' flame miraculously burns for eight days. Hanukkah is often thought of as a festival of light, but Shoshana argues that its central teaching is about "having enough".
Contrasting our fate in the west with that of countless people worldwide for whom securing basic food and water is a struggle, Shoshana remarks that it's peculiar that westerners seem unable to settle upon a level of material wealth. Instead, we try to accumulate as we cling to the notion that having more will make us happy.
Drawing upon the Buddha's teachings, Shoshana explains that eastern religions have an outlook that views all human suffering as stemming from the human experience of desire. The Book of Exodus, with tales of manna falling from heaven, also provides insightful teachings on learning to consume responsibly and avoid excess.
Shoshana concludes that abundance is not a healthy state to be in, but neither is deprivation. The challenge is having enough - not too much and not too little - and finding peace when we have all that we need.
Presenter: Shoshana Boyd Gelfand
Producer: Max O'Brien
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m00120bp)
Cheese-making on Mull
It's forty years since the Reades, a first generation farming couple from Somerset, uprooted their four teenage sons and a few dairy cows and headed for life on a derelict farm in the far north of Mull in the Hebrides. Hard graft and imagination has turned those ruins into a thriving multifaceted business which, among other things, exports Isle of Mull farmhouse cheese around the world and is now on the brink of distilling spirit from whey.
Chris Reade may be in her eighties now, but she is still a driving force on Sgriob-Ruadh, the farm on the outskirts of Tobermory which is now run by her sons Garth and Brendan along with other members of the extended family. She gives Nancy Nicolson a tour of the farm, including the swimming pool which has a dual purpose, and the recycled glass hall which houses the farm's cafe and shop. Yet despite all the success, Chris isn't sitting back and resting on her laurels. As she makes a start on her latest project, she tells Nancy her job isn't finished yet.
Produced and presented by Nancy Nicolson
SUN 06:57 Weather (m00120br)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m00120bt)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m00120bw)
A look at the ethical and religious issues of the week
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m00120by)
United World Schools
Education activist and author Vee Kativhu presents the BBC Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity United World Schools.
To Give:
- UK Freephone 0800 404 8144
-You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal. (That’s the whole address. Please do not write anything else on the front of the envelope). Mark the back of the envelope ‘United World Schools’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘United World Schools’.
Please note that Freephone and online donations for this charity close at
23.59 on the Saturday after the Appeal is first broadcast. However the Freepost option can be used at any time.
Registered Charity Number: 1187721
SUN 07:57 Weather (m00120c0)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m00120c2)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m00120c4)
Advent 1: Asking to see God face to face
Marking the first Sunday of Advent and looking forward to St Andrew’s Day, with The Rev Dr Donald MacEwan and The Rev Samantha Ferguson.
From St Salvator’s Chapel in the University of St Andrews.
Chapel Choir directed by Claire Innes-Hopkins.
Organists: Matthew McIlree and Frederick Frostwick.
Producer: Mo McCullough.
sundayworship@bbc.co.uk
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m0011tc9)
More Questions Than Answers
Tom Shakespeare explains why he can't get enough of University Challenge.
Starter for ten, picture round and music round.....it's all here!
But thirty-five years after he first appeared on the show, he asks if Britain is a better country.
Producer: Adele Armstrong
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dwwg6)
Wader roost
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Martin Hughes-Games tells the story of the flocks of waders which are drawn to the UK's estuaries. Britain's estuaries contain around 2,900 square kilometres of mud and sand-flats. Washed daily by the tides, these places are packed with food, molluscs, worms and crustaceans that support thousands of waders.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m00120c6)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m00120c8)
Writer, Sarah McDonald-Hughes
Director, Gwenda Hughes
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Ruth Archer ….. Felicity Finch
Josh Archer ….. Angus Imrie
Lilian Bellamy ….. Sunny Ormonde
Alan Franks ….. John Telfer
Clarrie Grundy ….. Heather Bell
Eddie Grundy ….. Trevor Harrison
Ed Grundy ….. Barry Farrimond
Mia Grundy ….. Molly Pipe
Will Grundy ….. Philip Molloy
Chelsea Horrobin ….. Madeleine Leslay
Jim Lloyd ….. John Rowe
Jazzer McCreary ….. Ryan Kelly
Lynda Snell ….. Carole Boyd
Oliver Sterling ….. Jim Lloyd
Blake ….. Luke MacGregor
SUN 11:00 Desert Island Discs (m00120cb)
Neil Gaiman, writer
Neil Gaiman is a writer whose list of titles spans many forms from novels, including American Gods, to children’s stories such as Coraline and the comic book the Sandman.
Neil grew up in East Grinstead and after finishing school he became a journalist and then wrote short stories and books. One of his early commissions was writing a companion to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. In 1989 he began to write the Sandman series for DC Comics which were illustrated by his friend Dave McKean.
The Sandman became the first comic ever to receive a literary award - the World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story – and is credited with bringing comics from an underground art form into the mainstream. It is currently in production as a television series.
Neil started writing what became the fantasy novel Good Omens in the 1980s but put it aside to concentrate on the Sandman. When his friend Terry Pratchett suggested they go back to it and finish it together, they turned Neil’s initial 5,000 words into a novel which was adapted for radio in 2014 and became a television series starring David Tennant and Michael Sheen.
Neil wrote his first children’s book, The Day I Swapped my Dad for Two Goldfish, in 1997. His next children’s book Coraline, about a little girl adrift in a parallel universe, was initially deemed to be too frightening to publish but is now a family favourite.
Neil is married to the musician Amanda Palmer and lives in upstate New York.
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Paula McGinley
SUN 11:45 Four Thought (m000k902)
Depolarizing
Ali Goldsworthy explains why campaigns which succeed by polarising people can cause long-term harm, and suggests ways we might tackle the resulting damage.
Ali was a top digital campaigner, working with charities, campaigns and political parties to mobilise hundreds of thousands of people to take action on behalf of causes. But in this honest and introspective talk she reveals how her doubts about some of the techniques she was using eventually suggested a dramatic change of direction. Ali now heads up the Depolarization Project, seeking to create space for people to change their minds.
Presenter: Olly Mann
Producer: Giles Edwards
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m00120cd)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 12:04 The Museum of Curiosity (m0011rth)
Series 16
Episode 6
Professor of Ignorance John Lloyd and the Museum’s latest curator Holly Walsh are joined by comedian and writer Daliso Chaponda, Chief Fire Officer of the West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service and neuroscientist Dr Sabrina Cohen-Hatton and anaesthetist and space medicine specialist Dr Kevin Fong.
Daliso explains how jokes have got him into some seriously hot water and discovers how many anagrams there are of his name. Sabrina discusses how experiencing homelessness as a teenager led her to the fire service and her love of Xoloitzcuintlis (Mexican hairless) dogs. And Dr Kevin Fong explores how an air ambulance could work in space and donates a special tribute to the NHS teams working devotedly through the COVID 19 crisis.
This series of The Museum of Curiosity has been recorded remotely.
The Museum’s exhibits were catalogued by Mike Shephard, Mike Turner and Mandy Fenton and Lydia Mizon of QI.
The Production Co-Ordinator was Sarah Nicholls.
The Producer was Anne Miller.
The Executive Producer was Julia McKenzie.
Edited by David Thomas.
A BBC Studios production.
SUN 12:32 Food and Farming Awards (m00120cg)
Food and Farming Awards 2021
First Course
After a year with no awards, the BBC Food and Farming Awards are back for their twentieth year to honour those who have done most to promote the cause of good food and drink.
The winners were announced at a special ceremony held on Wednesday November 24th at the BBC Radio Theatre in London.
The judging team this year include Angela Hartnett (chef), Matt Tebbut (chef and presenter of BBC's Saturday Kitchen), Matt Allwright (The One Show), Jack Monroe (food writer), Charlotte Smith (Countryfile and Radio 4's Farming Today) and the presenters of The Food Programme; Sheila Dillon, Dan Saladino, Jaega Wise and Leyla Kazim.
Presented by Sheila Dillon
Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan
SUN 12:57 Weather (m00120cj)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m00120cl)
James Naughtie looks at the week’s big stories from both home and around the world.
SUN 13:30 The Listening Project (m00120cn)
Life Experiences
Fi Glover presents three conversations between friends and strangers.
This week: asylum seekers Shukry and Loraine discuss homelessness and the healing power of art; Gemma and Amanda reflect on their respective relationships and whether marriage has had it’s day; and Mark, a midwife, and Andrew, who runs a bridal shop, exchange thoughts on men working in a woman’s world.
The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation lasts up to an hour and is then edited to extract the key moments of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in this decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Mohini Patel
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m0011tbq)
GQT at Home: Rooftop Trees and Frilly Leaves
Kathy Clugston hosts the horticultural programme featuring a group of gardening experts. This week's panellists are the ever-knowledgeable Chris Thorogood, Pippa Greenwood, and Bunny Guinness.
The team marks the beginning of National Tree Week by sharing some potted tree ideas for a rooftop terrace, as well as offering advice for a student science project.
Meanwhile, Bob Flowerdew has some top tips for looking after fruiting plants over winter, and we head up to Edinburgh as Kirsty Wilson tells us about two rather unusual plants, Dead Man's Fingers and the colourful Beautyberry.
Producer - Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer - Bethany Hocken
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 A Home of Our Own (m00106kl)
Garrick Street, Liverpool
Lynsey Hanley speaks to 39-year-old Chris who bought his house in Liverpool for just £1 and explores what his story tells us about the UK's housing crisis.
Every home has a story to tell about the UK's housing crisis. Chris purchased his Victorian terraced house from Liverpool City Council under their One Pound House scheme. The house was derelict after a regeneration scheme had been cancelled. Chris simply had to prove he had the money and the expertise to renovate the property. He's now living their with his partner, 38-year-old Emma, and they're expecting their first child. They love their home.
Melanie Backe-Hansen researches the history of Chris and Emma's home and Professor Paul Cheshire of the London School of Economics puts the story of the One Pound House scheme in context.
Producer: Laurence Grissell
SUN 15:00 Electric Decade (m000j7qj)
Leave it to Psmith
1. Poets at Blandings
Martin Jarvis and Rosalind Ayres direct a star cast in this sparkling PG Wodehouse comedy.
It's the 1920s and Edward Bennett is Psmith (the P is silent!). He’s as broke as the Ten Commandments and advertises himself to ‘go anywhere, do anything. Crime not objected to!’
Down at idyllic Blandings Castle, affably vague Lord Emsworth (Martin Jarvis) prepares to travel to London to collect a famous poet who’s been invited to Blandings by Emsworth’s fearsome sister Constance (Patricia Hodge).
Emsworth’s son Freddie (George Blagden) sees Psmith’s advert. He needs someone to steal his aunt’s necklace! In town, the Earl mistakes Psmith for the poet. Psmith spots lovely Eve Halliday (Susannah Fielding). He falls in love on sight. Freddie hires Psmith to do the stealing.
Love and crime, hand-in-hand. A thrilling farce ensues.
Cast:
Psmith ..… Edward Bennett
Eve ..… Susannah Fielding
Constance ..… Patricia Hodge
Freddie ..… George Blagden
Joe Keeble ..… Nigel Anthony
Lord Emsworth ..… Martin Jarvis
Miss Peavey ..… Lisa Dillon
Jackson ..… Ifan Meredith
Miss Clarkson ..… Lucy Phelps
McTodd ..… Kieran Hodgson
Baxter ..… Joe Bannister
Beach ..… Lloyd Owen
Other parts: Matthew Wolf, Darren Richardson, Daisy Hydon
Dramatised by Archie Scottney
Directed by Rosalind Ayres and Martin Jarvis
A Jarvis & Ayres production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 16:00 Open Book (m00120cq)
Elizabeth Strout
The creator of Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout, on her new novel Oh William! It's narrated by her character Lucy Barton, who re-assesses her relationship with her first husband - William - as they take a road trip together. Elizabeth Strout talks to Elizabeth Day about revisiting her characters, writing about memory and whether Olive Kitteridge will ever re-appear in her fiction.
Also, Professor Angus Fletcher explains his theories of Story Science; and Andrew Martin and Helen Oyeyemi discuss trains in fiction.
Book List – Sunday 28 November and Thursday 2 December
Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout
My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
Richard III by William Shakespeare
Wonder Works by Professor Angus Fletcher
The Iliad by Homer
Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi
Smoke by Andrew Martin
The Signalman by Charles Dickens
Mugby Junction by Charles Dickens
Barbox Brothers by Charles Dickens
Dombey and Sons by Charles Dickens
Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollope
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
The Man Who Was Thursday by GK Chesterton
The Adventure of Silver Blaze by A Sherlock Holmes story by Arthur Conan Doyle
Adelstrop by Edward Thomas
Cuckoo Valley Railway by Arthur Quiller-Couch
The Trail of the Serpent by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
SUN 16:30 The Language Exchange (m00120cs)
Daljit Nagra & Erica McAlister
The Language Exchange is a place where poets and scientists meet to share language & ideas and create new work. This week Daljit Nagra meets Erica McAlister.
One of Daljit Nagra's earliest poetic memories was reading 'The Fly' by William Blake. Here he goes to the Natural History Museum to meet Senior Curator and fly expert Erica McAlister to find out more about the life cycle of the fly, and ask why we have so many negative thoughts and feelings towards this amazingly various and useful small creature.
Daljit Nagra won the 2007 Forward Prize for Best First Collection for 'Look We Have Coming to Dover!'. He also presents Poetry Extra on Radio 4extra.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06qdjcn
Producer: Jessica Treen
SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m0011sg7)
Am I in a Cult?
How do you know if you’ve been recruited by a cult? Rachel Stonehouse investigates claims there are up to 2,000 cults currently operating in the UK. We talk to young people who say they were recruited on campus and a father who went to court to free his daughter from the influence of a harmful cult.
Reporter: Rachel Stonehouse
Producer: Michael Cowan
Editor: Maggie Latham
Researcher: Natasha Fernandes
SUN 17:40 Profile (m00120cv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m00120cx)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 17:57 Weather (m00120cz)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m00120d1)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m00120d3)
Elizabeth Alker
Join us and we take a walk in the park, test out a dream machine and loose ourselves on the dancefloor. Pack your thermals as we get on board the RRS David Attenborough on its maiden voyage to Antarctica and Jarvis Cocker introduces us to Lancashire's very own bat lady.
Presenter: Elizabeth Alker
Producer: Emmie Hume
Production Coordinator: Elodie Chatelain
Studio Manager: Richard Hannaford
SUN 19:00 The Archers (m00120d5)
Chelsea struggles to keep control and Peggy faces a ghost from the past.
SUN 19:15 It's Not What You Know (b09v6xwz)
Series 5
Episode 2
What would be Gyles Brandreth superpower, who is Sarah Kendall's all time hero and what is the source of Phil Wang's shame?
All these questions, and more, will be answered in the show hosted by Joe Lycett where panellists are tested on how well they know their nearest and dearest.
Produced by Adnan Ahmed.
It was a BBC Studios Production.
SUN 19:45 Gambits (m00120d7)
5: Check
The next in a gripping new short story series, set in Little Purlington - a seemingly ordinary English village, but which is anything but.
Today, in 'The Check', local chess prodigy Matthew thinks he might know who is behind the strange acts of misrule in the village...
Reader: Harry Redding
Writer: Eley Williams is the author of Attrib. and Other Stories, and a debut novel, The Liar's Dictionary.
Producer: Justine Willett
SUN 20:00 Feedback (m0011tbx)
Why did World at One decide to carry a long interview with one of the brothers of Ghislaine Maxwell? WATO’s Editor Natasha Shallice responds to listeners’ criticisms in an interview with Roger Bolton.
Also did Radio 4’s You and Yours do enough to fact check the claims made when it put antivaxxers on the air?
And two listeners give their verdict on a podcast about the rise, fall and trial of the Fake Heiress Anna Delvey.
Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Kate Dixon
Executive Producer: Samir Shah
A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m0011tbv)
Ian Wallace, Rossana Banti, Ivy Nicholson (pictured), Cedric Robinson MBE
Matthew Bannister on
Ian Wallace, one of the most influential figures in British ornithology. At one time he had seen a wider variety of species of birds than anyone else in Britain.
Rossana Banti, the Italian partisan who risked her life acting as a courier for the Resistance.
Ivy Nicholson, the model who was once a muse for Andy Warhol but fell on hard times and ended up sleeping on the streets.
Cedric Robinson MBE, who guided people across the treacherous sands of Morecambe Bay for more than 50 years.
Producer: Neil George
Interviewed guest: Stephen Moss
Interviewed guest: Roderick Bailey
Interviewed guest: Bill Bewley
Interviewed guest: Taryn Gould
Interviewed guest: Sean Bolger
Archive clips used: BBC Radio 4, 100 Years of British Birds 07/05/2007; The Sound Approach Podcast, Interview With Ian Wallace 2019; Progettazione Multimediale, Noi Partigiani - Interview With Rossana Banti 2021; Taryn Gould / Vimeo, As Is, As Was teaser 2014; Planet Group Entertainment, Factory People 2008; YouTube, Valarie Solanas on Shooting Andy Warhol 1968; BBC Radio 4, Midweek 09/12/2009; BBC Radio 4 Extra, Crossing the Bay 19/04/2019; BBC Radio 4, Saturday Live 16/07/2016.
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m00120d9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m00120by)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 Loosening the Old School Tie (m00121wr)
Private schools, which educate seven per cent of children, have long dominated many of the professions and institutions in Britain, including in the world of politics. The Covid-19 pandemic has amplified the disparities with the state system. But are there signs this dominance is about to change? Ben Wright asks whether the privileged education they provide is under threat.
He talks to Jane Lunnon, Head of Alleyn's School, Nick Hewlett, Head of St Dunstan's College, Barnaby Lenon, Chair of the Independent Schools Council, Sir Peter Lampl, Chair of the Sutton Trust, the historian David Kynaston, the former Education Secretary Justine Greening, the Shadow Education Secretary Kate Green and Dr Sam Lucy, Director of Admissions for Cambridge University among others.
Producer: Peter Snowdon
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m00120dc)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.
SUN 23:00 Think with Pinker (m0011s25)
Methinks it is a weasel
It’s tempting to see patterns in the random kaleidoscope of everyday experiences, but it's also dangerous.
Along with his business partner Warren Buffet, vice-chair of Berkshire Hathaway Charlie Munger has made billions of dollars but, by his own admission, he would have made billions more if only he’d made better decisions. He joins Professor Steven Pinker to discuss defying the odds and the dangers of over-interpreting coincidences. They hear why Tim Harford, economist, presenter of ‘More or Less’ and author of ‘How to Make the World Add Up: 10 Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers’ thinks a stock picking cow can help us make sense of a complicated world.
Producer: Imogen Walford
Editor: Emma Rippon
Think with Pinker is produced in partnership with The Open University.
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b09jbrv6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 29 NOVEMBER 2021
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m00120df)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 Sideways (m0011ry2)
An appointment with Dr Leech
Boston, Massachusetts, 1985. Dr Joe Upton is struggling to reattach a severed ear onto a little boy. Using incredible skill and the best in modern equipment he re-attaches the arteries, but the veins are proving difficult. Blood keeps getting congested and the little ear is turning black. Just when it looks like all is lost, Joe remembers leeches.
Once used to treat every malady imaginable, the vampiric worms fell out of favour when we gained a better understanding of how the body works. But, Matthew Syed wonders, did the medical backlash against leeches go too far, squandering the ancient wisdom contained in the worm?
In seeking to find out what other potentially useful cures have been consigned to history, Matthew learns about an Anglo Saxon recipe for an eye balm which uses garlic and bovine bile and may have MRSA busting qualities. He learns how the chants and charms accompanying such potions had incredibly practical purposes but why the newly professional doctors of The Enlightenment were keen to deride homespun medicine as quackery.
Matthew draws out why we dismiss certain knowledge and experience in favour of modernity and progress and asks what we risk losing as a result.
With Microsurgeon Dr Joe Upton, Carl Peters-Bond of Biopharm Leeches, Micro-biologist Dr Freya Harrison of Warwick University, Nottingham University Anglo Saxon expert Dr Christina Lee and 18th Century Medical historian Dr Kathryn Woods of Goldsmith’s University.
Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer: Marilyn Rust
Series Editor/Exec: Katherine Godfrey
Researcher: Nadia Mehdi
Music Sound, Design & Mix: Rob Speight
Additional mixing: Alex Portfelix
Theme Music: Seventy Times Seven by Iona Selaru
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m00120dh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m00120dk)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m00120dm)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m00120dp)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m00120dr)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m00120dt)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with writer and broadcaster, Anna Magnusson
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m00120dw)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
MON 05:56 Weather (m00120dy)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09nxvy1)
Jane Smith on the Ringed Plover
Wildlife artist Jane Smith is captivated by a group of ringed plovers and their ability to seemingly appear and disappear before her eyes so good is their colouring at camouflaging them, but their calls give them away!
Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Denis Eagling
MON 06:00 Today (m00120rl)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (m00120rn)
Levelling up; halting decline
Is it possible to ‘level up’ the economy and help struggling places halt decline and become more prosperous? Paul Swinney is Director of Policy and Research at the think tank Centre for Cities and his research focuses on city economies and their development over time. He considers what strategies might be implemented to support declining town and city centres and if the government’s Levelling Up agenda is likely to deliver concrete results.
The prize-winning poet Paul Batchelor was born in Northumberland and often explores the lost worlds of Britain’s mining communities, and the memories that have survived. The title of his new collection, The Acts of Oblivion, refers to seventeenth-century laws that required not only the pardon of revolutionary deeds, but also made discussing them illegal. His poems rebel against such restrictions, and against forgetting.
In the forest landscape of northern Varmland in Sweden lies the village of Osebol. In just five decades, the automation of the lumber industry and the draw of city-living, has seen the adult population dwindling to a mere 40 residents. Marit Kapla grew up there, and in Osebol: Voices from a Swedish Village she has returned and gathered the stories of all the inhabitants – from those whose families have lived there for generations, to the more recent arrivals. They tell of their griefs and joys, resentments and pleasures, and despite the village’s decline, life goes on.
Producer: Katy Hickman
MON 09:45 Antwerp: the Glory Years by Michael Pye (m00120rq)
1. A Golden Age Dawns
This vivid and lively account of Antwerp's glory years takes us back to the 16th century when the city is transformed into a rich and cultured European powerhouse. Michael Begley reads.
Michael Pye's history of Antwerp is a fascinating account of the city during it's golden age. Told through character studies, novels, paintings, songs, inventories and city ordinances, an evocative portrait emerges. Transformed into a trading powerhouse, nationals from all over Europe converged in Antwerp, making deals and enjoying the free and easy manners in a place where scandal and heresy was tolerated, and fortunes could be made almost over night. It's not long before religious divisions, and bellicose heads of state bring about an end to the city's tolerance, and it's financial prowess.
Michael Pye is the author of twelve previous books which have been translated into fifteen languages. He has worked as a journalist, broadcaster and columnist in London and New York.
Image: Salve Felix Antverpia, anonymous woodcut. KU Leuven. Special Collections
Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m00120rt)
BBC Women's Footballer of the Year 2021; Adoption breakdown; Nicola Adams
Nicola Adams OBE is officially Great Britain’s most successful female boxer of all time. She won gold at the London Olympics in 2012 and repeated the achievement in Rio in 2016. She is the only female boxer in the history of the sport to have won every major title available to her; Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth. So, it’s not a surprise that Amazon Prime Video have made a documentary about her. Lioness: The Nicola Adams Story explores her difficult upbringing and her battles with sexism, racism and homophobia to get in the ring. We find out how a girl from a council estate in Leeds became a #Lioness.
In the first part of a new series 'Under Pressure' Zoe and James explain how 'Ed' which is the name they gave Zoe's eating disorder changed their lives. How is a relationship impacted when life stuff happens?
We don’t often hear about adoptions that break down, but last week former BBC Scotland health correspondent Eleanor Bradford wrote about her "heart-breaking" decision to return her adopted son to the care system. She said she was unable to cope with her son’s “extremely challenging” behaviour and that she was “furious about the lack of support for adoptive parents” in Scotland. Eleanor Bradford joins Emma to share her experience along with the chief executive of Adoption UK, Sue Armstrong Brown.
Presenter: Emma Barnett
Producer: Kirsty Starkey
Interviewed Guest: Nicola Adams
Interviewed Guest: Eleanor Bradford
Interviewed Guest: Sue Armstrong Brown
MON 11:00 The Untold (m00120rw)
Living in Limbo
Producer Sue Mitchell interviews parents and children sleeping rough in parks or camped out in overcrowded hostels in Islamabad. They’ve braved the Taliban checkpoints and successfully bribed their way across the border. But what will happen to them now and have they any hope of being accepted for asylum in the U.K?
MON 11:30 Loose Ends (m00120jk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
MON 12:00 News Summary (m00120yr)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 12:04 Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (m00120s1)
6: 'Cyclonic, becoming rough or very rough'
Hailed as 'Patrick Melrose meets Fleabag', Meg Mason's achingly funny and heartbreakingly tender novel is one of the most talked-about novels of 2021.
Martha Friel is clever and beautiful, a woman who has been loved every day of her adult life by one man, her husband Patrick. So why is she - on the edge of 40 - friendless, practically jobless and broken? And why did Patrick decide to leave?
Now Martha, with the help of her devoted, wise-cracking sister and dysfunctional, bohemian parents, has one last chance to find out whether she can write a better ending for herself.
Today: married life turns from bliss to sorrow...
Reader: Hattie Morahan
Writer: Meg Mason
Abridger: Antonia Hodgson
Producer: Justine Willett
MON 12:18 You and Yours (m00120s3)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
MON 12:57 Weather (m00120s5)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m00120s7)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
MON 13:45 Male Order (m00120s9)
A Shadow Network
It costs £1000 for a vial of sperm from a licensed sperm bank, and one vial rarely does the job. But is price the only reason people go to the online fertility marketplaces?
For both Erika and Alex, knowing the other genetic half of their biological children is what took them to the internet's sperm donation marketplace. Erika, founder of the parenting connection site Pride Angel, wanted her child to know the donor. She also wanted the rest of the donor's family to be involved. Meanwhile, Alex recently joined Facebook's online donor groups because he wanted to know the people who will be raising his offspring, and maybe get the opportunity to visit every once in a while.
Shadow donor networks have been around for decades - excluded by clinics because of their sexuality, their marital status, or their desire to know the child - people whispered to friends and friends of friends at dinner parties and lecture halls. But with the dawn of the internet, these networks have expanded. Now, to access them, you simply need a web browser and a social media account.
Dr Aleks Krotoski has been tracking these sperm donor groups since 2018, and has seen both the rewards and the risks. Yes, there is the opportunity to meet a donor and the child's future parent, but this is an unregulated market dealing in a regulated material. Compelled to this underground world, the people who offer and receive put themselves and their future children in danger of exploitation and disease.
In this episode, Aleks asks, just because the internet lets us do it, should we?
MON 14:00 The Archers (m00120d5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Drama (m0007k6g)
Father's Land in Mother Tongue
A lyrical and atmospheric drama set in Bangladesh. After the death of her mother, Bradford born Mya travels with her father to her parents' village in Bangladesh for the first time. She longs to re-connect to her mother's past. What Mya doesn't anticipate is the discovery of dark family secrets tracing back to the Liberation War of 1971, when Bangladeshis fought for independence from Pakistan.
Mya ..... Bhavna Limbachia
Zain ..... Richard Sumitro
Lovely / Nani ..... Ayesha Dharker
Zahid / Train Guard / Police Officer ..... Ikky Elyas
Written by Kamal Kaan
Producer/Director, Pauline Harris
MON 15:00 Quote... Unquote (m00120sd)
Daliso Chaponda, Lissa Evans, Georgie Morrell
The celebrity panel game about quotations, hosted by Nigel Rees, returns with a series celebrating its 500th programme.
This episode features:
- Daliso Chaponda, critically acclaimed stand-up comedian and multi-disciplinary author
- Lissa Evans, former producer of Quote...Unquote who went on to produce Father Ted and become a highly successful novelist
- Georgie Morrell, stand-up comedian, actor, and writer
Reader of the Quotations: Charlotte Green
Production Co-Ordinator: Sarah Nicholls
Producer: Ella Watts
Executive Producer: James Robinson
This programme is a BBC Studios Audio production.
MON 15:30 Food and Farming Awards (m00120cg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 The Exploding Library (m0011s0q)
The Third Policeman, by Flann O’Brien
In this new literature series, a trio of comedians explode and unravel their most cherished cult books, paying homage to the tone and style of the original text - and blurring and warping the lines between fact and fiction.
As our hosts shine the spotlight on strange, funny and sometimes disturbing novels by Flann O’Brien, Jean Rhys and Kurt Vonnegut, listeners are invited to inhabit their eccentric worlds - gaining a deeper understanding of their workings and the unique literary minds that created them.
Featuring the comedic voices of Mark Watson, Josie Long and Daliso Chaponda, and created by award-winning producers Steven Rajam (Tim Key and Gogol’s Overcoat) and Benjamin Partridge (Beef and Dairy Network), this is an arts documentary series like no other.
In the first episode, comedian Mark Watson circles the strange, fantastical and hilarious world of The Third Policeman by the Irish author Flann O’Brien (Brian O’Nolan). Written in 1940, and riddled with strange philosophical ideas and fake - or are they? - footnotes, the book was described by one critic as “a nightmarish piece of Irish rural sci-fi where people turn into bicycles and policemen talk in non-sequiturs about quantum physics”.
It’s a book that’s always entranced Mark with its combination of laugh-out-loud absurdist humour and genuinely disturbing terror. But what was the author trying to do? What the is it really about - nuclear science, post-colonial identity, surrealism? And what’s going on with all the bicycles?
With contributions from writers Julian Gough and Roisin Kiberd; "Flannophiles" Maebh Long and Art Riordan, and writer on sci-fi Jack Fennell, Mark saddles up to discover whether, as the author of the Third Policeman once put it, “hell goes round and round”.
Presenter: Mark Watson
Producer / Series Producer: Steven Rajam
An Overcoat Media production for BBC Radio 4
MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (m00120sg)
Orthodox Jewish Women
There is a stereotype of the Orthodox Jewish woman. She is confined to domestic duties and bringing up many children whilst being dominated by a husband who wears a large round fur hat (a shtreimel) and has side curls and a bushy beard. This stereotype is based on the Ultra-Orthodox community which has recently been portrayed in the very popular Netflix dramas 'Unorthodox' and 'Shtisel'. The truth is that the Orthodox Jewish community is more diverse than this and that mainstream Orthodox Jewish women are taking on more responsibility in their community.
To discuss the stereotype, their faith and their lives, Ernie Rea is joined by three Orthodox Jewish women. Abi Kurzer is the Rebbetzen or Rabbi’s wife at Pinner United Synagogue in North London. She is also Clinical Manager and a social worker for a charity supporting adolescent girls from the Orthodox Jewish community. Rabbi Dr Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz is a Research Fellow at Manchester University. Controversially she was ordained this summer in New York. And Avigail Simmonds-Rosten is the Jewish Programme Manager at the Council of Christians and Jews in London.
Producer: Helen Lee
MON 17:00 PM (m00120sj)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m00120sn)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m00120sq)
Series 76
Episode 1
The 76th Series of Radio 4's multi award-winning ‘antidote to panel games’ promises yet more quality, desk-based entertainment for all the family. The series starts its run at the Hexagon Theatre in Reading where Jan Ravens and Omid Djalili are pitched against Tony Hawks and Barry Cryer, with Jack Dee as the programme's reluctant chairman. Regular listeners will know to expect inspired nonsense, pointless revelry and Colin Sell at the piano. Producer - Jon Naismith. It is a BBC Studios production.
MON 19:00 The Archers (m00120st)
Lynda finds it hard to let go of the reins and Lilian has a crisis of confidence
MON 19:15 Front Row (m00120sw)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
MON 20:00 The Wedding Detectives (m00120sy)
Episode 5
Wedding albums capture the happiest day of a couple’s life. But what happens when those pictures are lost? Wedding album collector Charlotte Sibtain and journalist Cole Moreton uncover the stories behind the photographs and try to reunite them with the family.
This time, Charlotte has found a wedding photograph on the internet of a Second World War bride and groom. The only clues they have are their first names and the name of the chapel. Charlotte and Cole discover that, a year later, Bill, an RAF pilot in the Battle of Britain, will be part of a brave but disastrous rescue mission in the Mediterranean that Churchill praises for its heroism.
Can the Detectives track down the bride’s family and return the photo?
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4
MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (m0011s0k)
Rotterdam and the cocaine connection
In the Port of Rotterdam they are preparing for a ‘White Xmas’ - but no one is talking about snow. Europe’s North Sea coast has overtaken the Iberian peninsula as the primary point of entry for cocaine reaching the continent. Industrial-sized labs have been busted in the Netherlands, and mafia-style executions have occurred on the streets. Most recently the crime journalist, Peter R de Vries was shot and mortally wounded in busy Amsterdam. For Crossing Continents, Linda Pressly asks how the Netherlands has become one of the largest illicit drug economies of the world.
Reporter, Linda Pressly
Producer, Michael Gallagher
Editor, Bridget Harney
(Image: CCTV footage from the port of Rotterdam showing cocaine ‘collectors’ – young men charged with retrieving smuggled narcotics from shipping containers. Credit: Kramer Group)
MON 21:00 Political Time Zones (m0011sfg)
Accelerated Speed
The machines have arrived - artificial intelligence, automation, news feeds driven by algorithms. And they have a different relationship to time than we do. As their influence on society grows, might it change our perception of time?
David Runciman, Professor of Politics at Cambridge University, looks at whether we are on the cusp of a fundamental shift in our experience of time - and what that might mean for politics.
Presenter: David Runciman
Producer: Ant Adeane
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
MON 21:30 Start the Week (m00120rn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m00120t1)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
MON 22:45 Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (m00120s1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
MON 23:00 Wireless Nights (m00120t3)
Series 7
Lost in the Forest
Jarvis Cocker gets lost in the forest at night and encounters a series of rather intriguing characters.
As darkness falls on the forest, Jarvis realises he's hopelessly lost. Disorientated and desperately trying to find his way out, his nocturnal woodland walk takes a series of increasingly dark turns.
He stumbles upon members of Essex Ghost Hunters who are mounting some rather spooky paranormal investigations. Another presence in the woods tonight is storyteller Lisa Schneidau who recounts some very strange fairy tales and legends of the forest after dark. He then runs into mountaineer Nick Bullock who recalls his own terrifying encounter in the forests of Alberta, Canada.
But just as the darkness of the forest seems to be at its most impenetrable, Jarvis runs into bushcraft expert David Willis who guides him back to the light.
Lisa Schneidau is the author of 'Woodland Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland', and Nick Bullock is the author of 'Tides: A Climber's Voyage'.
Producer: Laurence Grissell
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m00120t5)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
TUESDAY 30 NOVEMBER 2021
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m00120t7)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 00:30 Antwerp: the Glory Years by Michael Pye (m00120rq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m00120t9)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m00120tc)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m00120tf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m00120th)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m00120tk)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with writer and broadcaster, Anna Magnusson
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m00120tm)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b098j5l1)
YOLOBirder on the Waxwing
Birdwatching's irreverent commentator YOLOBirder on his love of the hipster-goatee beard and slick back quiff of the brightly-coloured waxwing, a bird so vibrant and uplifting he has come up with a special collective noun for them.
Producer: Andrew Dawes
Photograph: Richard Johnson.
TUE 06:00 Today (m00120vk)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 Things Fell Apart (m00120vp)
4. Believe the Children
In the mid 1980s a new conspiracy theory proliferates across America - that cabals of Satanists are secretly preying on children and polluting the culture. This ‘Satanic panic’ is a madness with bizarre and dreadful consequences – as an unsuspecting young woman in New Jersey is about to discover…
Written and presented by Jon Ronson
Produced by Sarah Shebbeare
Original music by Phil Channell
TUE 09:30 Biohacking (b0bgq0yz)
DIY
In the 3rd part of his exploration of biohacking, Prof Jonathan Ball meets the people trying DNA and Gene therapy on themselves.
TUE 09:45 Antwerp: the Glory Years by Michael Pye (m00120xf)
2. Ringing the Changes.
In this vivid account of the 16th century city the casting of a new and great bronze bell announces Antwerp's new found power in a world where money reigns. Michael Begley reads.
Michael Pye's history of Antwerp is a fascinating account of the city during it's golden age. Told through character studies, novels, paintings, songs, inventories and city ordinances, an evocative portrait emerges. Transformed into a trading powerhouse, nationals from all over Europe converged in Antwerp, making deals and enjoying the free and easy manners in a place where scandal and heresy was tolerated, and fortunes could be made almost over night. It's not long before religious divisions, and bellicose heads of state bring about an end to the city's tolerance, and it's financial prowess.
Michael Pye is the author of twelve previous books which have been translated into fifteen languages. He has worked as a journalist, broadcaster and columnist in London and New York.
Image: Salve Felix Antverpia, anonymous woodcut. KU Leuven. Special Collections
Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m00120vt)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
TUE 11:00 Afterlives (m00120vw)
Martin and Zeena
In this episode of Afterlives: Martin and Zeena, two people brought up by single dads, examine the legacy of being abandoned by their mothers.
Martin Andrews was one when his mother left after an extra-marital affair and he was brought up by his father and three sisters. He doesn’t blame his mother, who never wanted a fourth child and went on to have the career she hoped for. However, visiting at weekends was toxic and he hasn’t now seen his mother for the last 25 years: half his life.
Zeena Moolla was eight when her alcoholic mother left her father, an Indian Muslim from South Africa, to look after the three children. She says her childhood started at that moment, although the painful memories don’t go away.
At one level they both celebrate their non-conventional ‘family,’ and both of them express deep love and gratitude for their dads who were there for them. Both also speak of the need to forgive and to move on: demonstrating to the modern world that all sorts of families are healthy if they are loving.
They see their fathers as pioneers, battling in the '70s against social norms (which still persist to some degree) and identify their role to talk about the particular challenges - and surprising gifts - of being abandoned by a mother.
They discuss the disservice it does to women when they are seen as the primary nurturers, and argue strongly for equal responsibility between male and female carers.
This is a disarmingly honest and frank conversation between two people who in the end agree, that - compared to their mothers - they had ‘the good deal’: the happy memories with their dads, and a bank of experiences to help them parent their own children and negotiate their own family relationships.
Overtone Production
Produced by Anna Scott-Brown
TUE 11:30 Shaking Up the Shanty (m00120vy)
The musical duo The Rheingans Sisters compose a contemporary sea shanty for an unusual cargo boat that has ditched diesel in favour of sails.
Take a look around your home, and it’s likely that 90% of what you’ll see has spent some time on a cargo boat. The shipping industry is massive, and so is its impact on the environment and the climate.
But onboard De Gallant, things are different. This boat transports fair trade cargo around the world on wind power alone.
In some ways, this boat is old fashioned – its glossy wooden hull and seven sails are reminiscent of a pirate ship – but on the other hand, the boat offers a progressive, climate-conscious alternative to commercial shipping.
De Gallant borrows technology from the past to sail toward a more sustainable future and so it seems fitting that the musical duo The Rheingans Sisters should write a song that borrows from traditional shanties to create a contemporary song that sings of the boat’s progressive journey. They set off to understand the shanty genre by speaking to Gerry Smyth, a shanty expert based at Liverpool John Moores University, but then decide to break all the rules!
As the boat makes its way from the Caribbean and then around Europe, Rowan and Anna Rheingans must find creative ways to collaborate and exchange ideas with the boat and each other, using what they have to navigate obstacles thrown up by Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic.
In true shanty tradition, the sisters create musical bricolage that borrows lines of dialogue from De Gallant’s crew, and melodies, rhythms, instruments and lyrics from a whole range of sources.
Produced by Claire Crofton
Additional recording by Louise Cognard
A Boom Shakalaka production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m0012112)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:04 Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (m00120w2)
7: 'Brain weather'
Hattie Morahan continues Meg Mason's darkly humorous and heartbreakingly tender novel, hailed as 'Patrick Melrose meets Fleabag;.
Martha Friel is clever and beautiful, a brilliant writer who has been loved every day of her adult life by one man, her husband Patrick. So why is Martha - on the edge of 40 - friendless, practically jobless and broken? And why did Patrick decide to leave?
Now Martha, with the help of her devoted, wise-cracking sister and dysfunctional, bohemian parents, has one last chance to find out whether she can write a better ending for herself.
Today: confused and bewildered by her erratic behaviour, Martha decides to consult another psychiatrist...
Reader: Hattie Morahan
Writer: Meg Mason began her career in journalism, working on The Times, the New Yorker and Vogue. This is her second novel.
Abridger: Antonia Hodgson
Producer: Justine Willett
TUE 12:18 You and Yours (m00120w4)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
TUE 12:57 Weather (m00120w6)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m00120w8)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
TUE 13:45 Male Order (m00120wb)
Boundaries
Donor Alex has found a match with prospective parents MJ and Milo. He found their ad for a sperm donor on Facebook - they listed their needs and wants, hoping for someone to be involved in their child’s life. The trio have chatted on Facebook and on Zoom, and their ideas appear to align.
But this is a commitment that lasts much longer than the time it takes for Alex to donate - are they willing to work together as relative strangers connected by genetics for at least the next 18 years?
Natalie Gamble sees these kinds of families in her family law practice often. She recommends people who are about to embark on this lifelong journey get everything worked out before a child comes into the picture.
Presenter: Aleks Krotoski
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m00120st)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (m0007wf1)
Blend
by Archie Maddocks
Tonight's the night they had planned to conceive a child, but Layla and Paris, both mixed-race, delve into the reasons for and against, and expose the rocky foundations of their relationship.
Layla ..... Rebekah Murrell
Paris ..... Jake Fairbrother
Guillermo ..... Mika Osei-Owusu
Director: David Hunter
TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (m00120wd)
Past Tense
Josie Long presents audio adventures and short documentaries about what’s gone before. A daughter’s decades-long search for her father who went missing as a political prisoner in South Africa, a poem by the German-American poet Lisel Mueller listing the parts that make up our memories, and the writer and comedian Heidi O’Loughlin untangles the stories woven into and around her Polynesian identity.
Nombulelo Booi
Featuring Nombulelo Booi and Madeleine Fullard, with translation by Thenjiwe Kona.
Produced by Catherine Boulle and Bongani Kona
This piece is part of a larger, ongoing documentary project by Catherine and Bongani titled Time, Paper, Bone about the work of the Missing Persons Task Team, and the exhumation of James Booi’s remains. The project won the 2021 Whickers Radio and Audio Funding Award.
Necessities
Written by Lisel Mueller
Read by Lisel Mueller and Studs Terkel and from a conversation originally broadcast in January 1987.
Courtesy of the Studs Terkel Radio Archive
From the South Pacific
Written and read by Heidi O’Loughlin
Curatorial team: Alia Cassam and Eleanor McDowall
Producer: Andrea Rangecroft
Executive Producer: Axel Kacoutié
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (m00120wg)
Seeing the Wood for the Trees
There have been big promises about tree-planting numbers over the last few years - but is there much point in planting more trees, if we're not looking after the ones we've already got? The Woodland Trust estimates that only 7% of the UK's native woodlands are in good ecological condition - with pests, diseases, climate change and development all threats to tree health. Meanwhile a report from Botanic Gardens Conservation International says that a third of the world's trees are at risk of extinction.
In this programme, Peter Gibbs finds out what's ailing our trees, and asks what can be done to nurse them back to health. He talks to scientists, campaigners and the government's Chief Plant Health Officer, and finds out about a project where researchers are on the hunt for trees with natural resistance to ash dieback, which may be able to re-populate the ash woodlands of the future. He also visits a 'research forest' in the Midlands, where scientists are piping extra carbon dioxide at some of their trees, to find out what the impact of rising CO2 levels is likely to be for trees in years to come.
Produced by Emma Campbell
TUE 16:00 Will-of-the-Dump (m00120wj)
Will Self tells the story of his black bin bag... from his back door... to its final destination. It's the story of a modern-day dump - an extraordinary, alien, nauseating world - where, instead of being buried, the rubbish will go up in smoke.
Voices of waste workers intermingle with the rubbish in a go-round of garbage, scored by Jon Nicholls. There are the bin men who believe 'you just gotta get in the groove' as they walk ten miles a day, to 'pick up a bit of crap, sling it in the back of the lorry and take it down the dump'. There's the weighbridge clerk at the sorting facility taking pride in separating the 'sheepy recycling from the goatish garbage' to load it onto enormous steel containers. Boatmen on the Thames steer these huge barges, bright orange in colour, past the great landmarks of London in 'a cockney pas-de-deux danced with detritus'. Downriver, the bag arrives at its destination - a giant industrial incinerator where ten thousand tonnes of waste are going up in flames, at temperatures of 850 degrees. 'Some people are mesmerized by it', we hear. Will's black bag meets its 'fiery and apocalyptic end'.
It's a raw, unnerving look at our relationship with our waste.
Sound designer: Jon Nicholls
Producer: Adele Armstrong
TUE 16:30 A Good Read (m00120wl)
Liam Williams and Kate Stables
Three strange, fantastical novels, all very different, are the book choices for this week.
Liam Williams is perhaps best-known for the BBC series 'Ladhood'. He picks 'Bartleby, the Scrivener' by Herman Melville, a dark tale about the monotony of office work and people who quietly buck the system. The musician Kate Stables AKA This is the Kit is a self-confessed huge fan of Ursula K. Le Guin, and she chooses 'The Word for World is Forest' to share with Liam and Harriett. It's a book which draws heavily on the Vietnam War to comment on the nature of humanity. Harriett's pick is Requiem by Antonio Tabucchi, a tale of unexpected encounters on the streets of Lisbon, as the narrator goes in search of a lost love.
Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol: Toby Field
TUE 17:00 PM (m00120wn)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m00120ws)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 The Casebook of Max and Ivan (b0978868)
Series 2
Case #47 - Crime Writing Doesn't Pay
Incompetent private detectives Max and Ivan are contacted by the very dull white goods instruction manual writer Robert R. Roberts, who wants them to investigate a series of copycat crimes based on the erotic crime fiction novels he writes under the pseudonym Scarlett Melange.
Their investigation takes them to the Peckam Flower and Vegetable show, where they fear the life of head judge Joaquin Zamorano is in considerable danger.
Along the way, they meet the one person on earth who might be more boring than Robert R. Roberts - his wife Roberta.
Written by and Max Olesker and Ivan Gonzalez
Max ...... Max Olesker
Ivan ...... Ivan Gonzalez
Robert R. Roberts aka Scarlett Melange ...... Jason Watkins
Roberta Roberts/Voice of the Audiobook ...... Lolly Adefope
Narrator/Malcolm McMichaelmas ...... Lewis MacLeod
Joaquin Zamarano/Impish Nutter ...... David Reed
Developed by John Stanley Productions
Produced by Ben Walker
A Retort production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in October 2017.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m00120wv)
Eddie finds himself doing the donkey work and Kate has her suspicions.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m00120wx)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
TUE 20:00 The River Man (m00120wz)
100 years ago the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed, bringing to a formal end the Irish War of Independence and ending centuries of British colonial control. During the war members of the IRA were pitted against the Royal Irish Constabulary, the British Army and the notorious Black and Tans and Auxiliaries.
It's a story of divided loyalties and the unresolved traumas of war, with resonance today as Britain and Ireland struggle to address the legacy of the more recent violence of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
In an investigation into the fate of one man, James Kane, the River Man, executed by the IRA a century ago, by men he knew and who liked him, Fergal Keane explores some of these issues. Why did they kill him and what were the consequences for his family and his executioners?
Producer: John Murphy
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m00120x1)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted
TUE 21:00 All in the Mind (m00120x3)
Programme exploring the limits and potential of the human mind. Producer: Deborah Cohen.
TUE 21:30 Things Fell Apart (m00120vp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m00120x5)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
TUE 22:45 Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (m00120w2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
TUE 23:00 Fortunately... with Fi and Jane (m00120x7)
213. Wing-It Merchants and Italia 90, with Josh Widdicombe
This week on the Fortunately podcast, Fi and Jane chat comedian Josh Widdicombe. The star of the Last Leg and host of the Parenting Hell podcast tells Fi and Jane what he learnt from a childhood of TV watching, chronicled in his book 'Watching Neighbours Twice A Day'. He also lifts the veil on Who Do You Think You Are? and looks back on an infamous moment in Gary Lineker's playing career.
Get in touch: fortunately.podcast@bbc.co.uk
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m00120x9)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
WEDNESDAY 01 DECEMBER 2021
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m00120xc)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
WED 00:30 Antwerp: the Glory Years by Michael Pye (m00120xf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m00120xh)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m00120xk)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m00120xm)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m00120xp)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m00120xr)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with writer and broadcaster, Anna Magnusson
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m00120xt)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03k5c8y)
Purple Sandpiper
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
David Attenborough presents the purple sandpiper. On winter beaches, where waves break on seaweed-covered rocks, purple sandpipers make their home. 'Purple' refers to the hint of a purple sheen on their back feathers. They are well camouflaged among the seaweed covered rocks and being relatively quiet, compared to many waders, are easy to overlook.
WED 06:00 Today (m001216g)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 The Reith Lectures (m001216j)
Stuart Russell - Living With Artificial Intelligence
The Biggest Event in Human History
Stuart Russell explores the future of Artificial Intelligence and asks: How can we get our relationship with it right? In this lecture he reflects on the birth of AI, tracing our thinking about it back to Aristotle. He outlines the definition of AI, its successes and failures, and the risks it poses for the future.
Referencing the representation of AI systems in film and popular culture, Professor Russell will examine whether our fears are well founded. He will explain what led him, alongside previous Reith Lecturer Professor Stephen Hawking, to say that “success would be the biggest event in human history…and perhaps the last event in human history.” He will ask how this risk arises and whether it can be avoided, allowing humanity and AI to coexist successfully.
Stuart Russell is founder of the Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence at the University of California, Berkeley.
This lecture and question-and-answer session was recorded at the Alan Turing Institute at the British Library in London.
Presenter: Anita Anand
Producer: Jim Frank
Editor: Hugh Levinson
Production Coordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound: Neil Churchill and Hal Haines
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001216p)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
WED 11:00 Rutherford and Fry on Living with AI (m00128xd)
Episode 1
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already ubiquitous in our lives. It curates our nightly TV entertainment, connects us to our friends online and navigates us, mostly successfully, to our destinations. However these uses are just the beginning, and it will likely bring societal changes we can’t yet imagine.
In this year’s BBC Reith lectures, AI expert Professor Stuart Russell will be exploring how AI has been represented in popular fiction, envisaging how this technology might shape our futures and how we best prepare for it. So who better to unwrap his ideas than science sleuths Adam Rutherford and Hannah Fry, with their customary curiosity and irreverent insights?
In this, the first of four episodes, Rutherford and Fry – together with guests author and podcaster Azeem Azhar and AI scholar Kate Crawford - will be unravelling what we actually mean by AI, exploring how far machine learning already underpins our lives, imagining the functions it might provide in the future and asking what challenges and risks might lie ahead. Can AI transform society as profoundly as electricity once did leading to a golden age for humanity, or have we all watched too many sci-fi movies?
WED 11:30 John Finnemore's Double Acts (b08tcp50)
Series 2
Here's What We Do
It's Pidge and Gavin! The old team back together again for one last mission.
Kieran Hodgson and Ethan Lawrence star in another two-hander written by Cabin Pressure's John Finnemore.
Written by John Finnemore
Produced by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:00 News Summary (m001216r)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 12:04 Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (m001216t)
8: 'He should have known'
Hailed as 'Patrick Melrose meets Fleabag', Meg Mason's achingly and heartbreakingly tender novel, read by Hattie Morahan.
Martha Friel is clever and beautiful, a brilliant writer who has been loved every day of her adult life by one man, her husband Patrick. So why is Martha - on the edge of 40 - friendless, practically jobless and broken? And why did Patrick decide to leave?
Now Martha, with the help of her devoted, wise-cracking sister and dysfunctional, bohemian parents, has one last chance to find out whether she can write a better ending for herself.
Today: Martha finally confronts her husband over what has always been wrong with her...
Reader: Hattie Morahan
Writer: Meg Mason began her career in journalism, working on The Times, the New Yorker and Vogue. This is her second novel.
Abridger: Antonia Hodgson
Producer: Justine Willett
WED 12:18 You and Yours (m001216w)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
WED 12:57 Weather (m001216y)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m0012170)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
WED 13:45 Male Order (m0012172)
Red Lines
Kim and Aaron have chosen James to be their donor. He’s exactly what they’re looking for - the physical features, the profession, and dozens of photographs of donor-conceived children on his Facebook profile page that prove he can get women pregnant.
Even better, the couple don’t even have to meet him in person to conceive - he will ship his sperm to them via the post, and they can inseminate in the comfort of their home.
But as the months pass without success, despite repeated attempts, they are becoming disheartened. They come to meet him for an in-person donation, which raises the possibility that Kim could receive his sperm through “natural” insemination, or sex - a red line for Aaron, but not for her.
Dr Keenan Omurtag, a fertility specialist, guides us through what we know - and importantly, what we don’t know - about conception.
Presenter: Aleks Krotoski
WED 14:00 The Archers (m00120wv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Stone (b084wzjj)
Series 6
Damage
Detective series Stone created by Danny Brocklehurst with Hugo Speer as DCI Stone.
In Damage by Vivienne Harvey, following a series of suspicious deaths in the homeless community, DCI Stone decides the only way to the truth is to go undercover on the streets.
DCI JOHN STONE.....Hugo Speer
DI MIKE TANNER..…Craig Cheetham
DS SUE KELLY.....Deborah McAndrew
JOLENE / CAROL / FRANCES.....Angela Lonsdale
MCAFFREY / RIGGER.....Conrad Nelson
BOBBY/ MAD DOG.....Reece Noi
JAMMY.....Drew Cain
QUEENIE/ NURSE.....Verity Henry
Directed by Nadia Molinari
WED 15:00 Money Box (m0012176)
Financial Abuse
Restricting access to money, bank accounts and the right to earn an income are a few of the many and varied forms of financial abuse, often accompanied by other types of domestic violence.
Sadly it’s estimated that one in six people in the UK are dealing with this deeply distressing method of coercive control.
In this episode Felicity Hannah hears from some of those affected and about the organisations ready to help including:
Dr Nicola Sharp-Jeffs, founder and CEO, of the charity Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA)
Cris McCurley Partner & Solicitor at Ben Hoare Bell.
Producer Smita Patel
Editor Emma Rippon
WED 15:30 All in the Mind (m00120x3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Sideways (m000ylb8)
Matthew Syed explores ideas that shape our lives, making us see the world differently.
WED 16:30 The Media Show (m001217b)
Social media, anti-social media, breaking news, faking news: this is the programme about a revolution in media.
WED 17:00 PM (m001217g)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001217k)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Mark Steel's in Town (m001217m)
Series 11
Blyth, Northumberland
The famous Blyth Staithes (created for off-loading coal into ships) were the backdrop for one of the grimmest scenes in the Michael Caine classic Get Carter - the smoggy industrial view at the time described by the director as an "absolute vision of hell". Undaunted, comedian Mark Steel travels to this part of Northumberland and finds a fascinating industrial legacy, a posh pub, a very nice beach and prominent indications of its role in the first and second World Wars. Does a town blighted by so many closures show any evidence of green shoots? Mark presents his findings to a local audience at The Phoenix Theatre and as ever gets away with just the right amount of affection rudeness and we learn more about a very distinctive coastal town in the UK.
The full box set of all episodes (with well over 50 towns visited) is available now wherever you get your podcasts.
Written by and starring...Mark Steel
With additional material from Pete Sinclair
Production Coordinator...Beverly Tagg
Producer...Julia McKenzie
A BBC Studios Production.
WED 19:00 The Archers (m001214r)
Harrison attempts to get to the truth and Mia faces a personal struggle.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m001217q)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m001217s)
Live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week's news stories. #moralmaze
WED 20:45 Antwerp: the Glory Years by Michael Pye (m001216m)
3. William Tyndale
The evocative story of the 16th century city continues with an account of William Tyndale's escape to Antwerp and his dangerous career as religious divisions take hold across Europe. Michael Begley reads.
Michael Pye's history of Antwerp is a fascinating account of the city during it's golden age. Told through character studies, novels, paintings, songs, inventories and city ordinances, an evocative portrait emerges. Transformed into a trading powerhouse, nationals from all over Europe converged in Antwerp, making deals and enjoying the free and easy manners in a place where scandal and heresy was tolerated, and fortunes could be made almost over night. It's not long before religious divisions, and bellicose heads of state bring about an end to the city's tolerance, and it's financial prowess.
Michael Pye is the author of twelve previous books which have been translated into fifteen languages. He has worked as a journalist, broadcaster and columnist in London and New York.
Image: Salve Felix Antverpia, anonymous woodcut. KU Leuven. Special Collections
Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (m00120wg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 The Media Show (m001217b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m001217v)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
WED 22:45 Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (m001216t)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
WED 23:00 Rosie Jones: Box Ticker Too (m00121pt)
Disability, with Don Biswas
Stand-up comedy and chat from triple-threat Rosie Jones. She’s disabled, gay and northern. But she’s not a great example of any of these communities and she’s tired of being asked to speak on their behalf.
This week, Rosie looks at disability through stand-up and chat with Don Biswas. The pair are close friends, so they hold no punches when comparing their daily experiences and interactions with neurotypical people. Who else could ask "What is the best thing about being disabled?" with such charm?
Recorded in a live comedy club, prepare to be shocked and disappointed by Rosie’s lack of respect for your expectations.
Produced by Richard Melvin
A Dabster production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:15 The Skewer (m001217x)
Series 5
Episode 5
Your new news fix. Jon Holmes's The Skewer returns to twist itself into current affairs.
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001217z)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
THURSDAY 02 DECEMBER 2021
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m0012181)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
THU 00:30 Antwerp: the Glory Years by Michael Pye (m001216m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0012183)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0012185)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0012187)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m0012189)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001218c)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with writer and broadcaster, Anna Magnusson
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m001218f)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b091vs6s)
Alex Gregory on the Kingfisher
Two-time Olympic Gold medalist Alex Gregory reflects on the birds he sees such as the kingfisher and heron while out on early morning training for this Tweet of the Day.
Producer: Mark Ward
Photograph: Anna Bilska.
THU 06:00 Today (m001213x)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (m0012141)
The Battle of Trafalgar
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the events of 21st October 1805, in which the British fleet led by Nelson destroyed a combined Franco-Spanish fleet in the Atlantic off the coast of Spain. Nelson's death that day was deeply mourned in Britain, and his example proved influential, and the battle was to help sever ties between Spain and its American empire. In France meanwhile, even before Nelson's body was interred at St Pauls, the setback at Trafalgar was overshadowed by Napoleon's decisive victory over Russia and Austria at Austerlitz, though Napoleon's search for his lost naval strength was to shape his plans for further conquests.
With
James Davey
Lecturer in Naval and Maritime History at the University of Exeter
Marianne Czisnik
Independent researcher on Nelson and editor of his letters to Lady Hamilton
And
Kenneth Johnson
Research Professor of National Security at Air University, Alabama
Producer: Simon Tillotson
THU 09:45 Antwerp: the Glory Years by Michael Pye (m001215s)
4. Dealing in Art and Song
In the vivid account of the 16th century city a bigger and better Exchange is built to reflect Antwerp's influence in trade and commerce. Meanwhile, there's innovation in dealing in art and song. Michael Begley reads.
Michael Pye's history of Antwerp is a fascinating account of the city during it's golden age. Told through character studies, novels, paintings, songs, inventories and city ordinances, an evocative portrait emerges. Transformed into a trading powerhouse, nationals from all over Europe converged in Antwerp, making deals and enjoying the free and easy manners in a place where scandal and heresy was tolerated, and fortunes could be made almost over night. It's not long before religious divisions, and bellicose heads of state bring about an end to the city's tolerance, and it's financial prowess.
Michael Pye is the author of twelve previous books which have been translated into fifteen languages. He has worked as a journalist, broadcaster and columnist in London and New York.
Image: Salve Felix Antverpia, anonymous woodcut. KU Leuven. Special Collections
Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0012145)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (m0012147)
Sleepless in Seoul
Korea is one of the most stressed and tired nations on earth, a place where people work and study longer hours than anywhere else. And statistics show they are finding it increasingly difficult to switch off and relax; they sleep fewer hours and have higher rates of depression and suicide than almost anywhere else.
And as a result sleeplessness and stress has become big business in Korea; from sleep clinics where doctors assess people overnight, to ‘sleep cafes’ offering naps in the middle of the working day, to relaxation drinks. Even Buddhism is moving in on the action with temple retreats and monk-led apps to help stressed out Koreans to relax. There is a lot of money to be made but some Koreans have become worried that in trying to sell religion to the next generation, some faith leaders might be losing touch with Buddhist principles themselves. For Crossing Continents Se-Woong Koo reports from Seoul on a nation that’s wired on staying awake. Producer, Chloe Hadjimatheou.
THU 11:30 The Exploding Library (m0012149)
Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys
In this new literature series, a trio of comedians explode and unravel their most cherished cult books, paying homage to the tone and style of the original text - and blurring and warping the lines between fact and fiction.
As our hosts shine the spotlight on strange, funny and sometimes disturbing novels by Flann O’Brien, Jean Rhys and Kurt Vonnegut, listeners are invited to inhabit their eccentric worlds - gaining a deeper understanding of their workings and the unique literary minds that created them.
Featuring the comedic voices of Mark Watson, Josie Long and Daliso Chaponda, and created by award-winning producers Steven Rajam (Tim Key and Gogol’s Overcoat) and Benjamin Partridge (Beef and Dairy Network), this is an arts documentary series like no other.
In the second programme, comedian Josie Long is haunted by feelings of the outsider - the ghosts of the past, Paris (and Pernod) - as she unlocks the secrets of Jean Rhys’s novel Good Morning, Midnight. When it was released in 1939, no one was interested and Rhys disappeared into obscurity and, even worse than that, Beckenham. But it also held the key to her later success.
Ever since she first read the novel, Josie has identified with Jean Rhys and Good Morning, Midnight’s protagonist Sacha. Maybe a bit too much.
With contributions from writers Lauren Elkin, Lilian Pizzichini, A L Kennedy and Shivanee Ramlochan, professor of English Patricia Moran and French restaurant manager Kostas, Josie checks in and descends into Good Morning, Midnight.
The readings are by Catrin Stewart and the hotel receptionist is played by Mike Wozniak.
Presenter: Josie Long
Producer: Benjamin Partridge
Series Producer: Steven Rajam
An Overcoat Media production for BBC Radio 4
THU 12:00 News Summary (m001216c)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 12:04 Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (m001214f)
9: 'This is everyone's tragedy'
Hailed as 'Patrick Melrose meets Fleabag', Meg Mason's achingly funny and heartbreakingly tender novel, read by Hattie Morahan.
Martha Friel is clever and beautiful, a brilliant writer who has been loved every day of her adult life by one man, her husband Patrick. So why is Martha - on the edge of 40 - friendless, practically jobless and broken? And why did Patrick decide to leave?
Now Martha, with the help of her devoted, wise-cracking sister and dysfunctional, bohemian parents, has one last chance to find out whether she can write a better ending for herself.
Today: after some home-truths and a reconciliation, Martha moves on...
Reader: Hattie Morahan
Writer: Meg Mason
Abridger: Antonia Hodgson
Producer: Justine Willett
THU 12:18 You and Yours (m001214h)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
THU 12:57 Weather (m001214k)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m001214m)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
THU 13:45 Male Order (m001214p)
Power Plays
In 2014, a woman came to London to receive sperm from a donor she found online. Later, he was convicted in a criminal court on two counts of sexual abuse against her. In court, it was argued that the donor, a university professor and popular member of the sperm donor marketplace, had taken advantage of his position of power - he had control over the thing she was desperate to have.
Dr Tanya Palmer, a legal scholar at the University of Sussex, has argued that the UK criminal law lacks legislation over what she describes as chronic sexual abuse - acts that on their own are not offenses, but taken together can be seen as an ongoing assault of a person’s ability to give consent. In these marketplaces, she says, prolific and long-term donors are determining what new recipients should agree to, and what they feel they can say no to as well.
Presenter: Aleks Krotoski
THU 14:00 The Archers (m001214r)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 This Thing of Darkness (p0b22rf2)
Series 2
Part 4
The winner of the British Podcast Award for Best Fiction 2021 returns with a gripping drama about trauma, obsession and why we harm the things we love.
Part 4 of 7
Written by Anita Vettesse with monologues by Eileen Horne.
Dr Alex Bridges is an expert forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist, assessing and treating perpetrators of violent crime.
Paul and Sarah discover that the past still exerts enormous power in the present. How far will they go?
Alex … Lolita Chakrabarti
Sarah ….. Melody Grove
Paul ….. Robert Jack
Kelly ….. Veronica Leer
Malcolm ….. Michael Nardone
Rowena ….. Wendy Seager
Series created by Lucia Haynes, Eileen Horne, Gaynor Macfarlane, Anita Vettesse and Kirsty Williams.
Series consultant: Dr Gwen Adshead
Produced by Gaynor Macfarlane and Kirsty Williams
A BBC Scotland Production directed by Gaynor Macfarlane
THU 15:00 Open Country (m001214v)
After Dark on the Brecon Beacons
Long winter nights are a time for hot drinks, closed curtains and snoozing by the fire. Well, not for everyone. In the Brecon Beacons National Park in South Wales, people are up and about all through the night. Emily Knight finds out what they're up to.
The Brecon Beacons are recognised as an International Dark Sky Reserve - one of two in Wales and only seventeen in the world. With minimal light pollution, it's possible to see nature as it once was - before the background glow of electric lights got in the way. Head out into the rolling hills at night and you'll see something you'll never be able to see from a city, even on the clearest of nights - the sparkling streak of the Milky Way, cutting the night in two.
There's plenty more to be found by the light of the stars. From moth-trappers to starling-spotters to astro-photographers, well-armed with scarves and flasks and head-torches, the dark quiet landscape is alive with activity - if you know where to look.
Presented and produced in Bristol by Emily Knight
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m00120by)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (m00120cq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 Think with Pinker (m001214x)
In touch with reality
Why do so many of us believe in quackery and conspiracy? In his guide to thinking better, Professor Steven Pinker tries to make sense of the senseless.
Steven is joined by Jonathan Rauch, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and the author, most recently, of ‘The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of the Truth’ and by Ellen Cushing, Senior and Special Projects Editor at The Atlantic. What was it that finally convinced her that there isn’t really a global organisation communicating in cryptic symbols and masterminding world events by planting agents in governments and corporations.
Producers: Imogen Walford and Joe Kent
Editor: Emma Rippon
Think with Pinker is produced in partnership with The Open University.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m001214z)
A weekly programme that illuminates the mysteries and challenges the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.
THU 17:00 PM (m0012151)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0012155)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Relativity (m000lh5z)
Series 3
Episode 4
The third series of Richard Herring’s comedy drama, Relativity, builds on the warm, lively characters and sharply observed family dynamics of previous series.
His always affectionate, sometimes spiky observation of inter-generational misunderstanding, sibling sparring and the ties that bind will resonate with anyone who has ever tried to combine a relaxing mini break with a four month old who rarely sleeps.
Amid the comedy, Richard broaches some more serious highs and lows of family life. In this series, he focuses on the roller coaster ride of first time parenting, how to maintain a long standing marriage and brass rubbing.
Richard Herring is a comedian, writer, blogger and podcaster and the world's premier semi-professional self-playing snooker player.
Episode 4
A tale of two hotels. Ian and Chloe’s relaxing weekend proves to be anything but, with Chloe taking Don home alone. Meanwhile, Jane treats Ken and Margaret to a slap up cream tea with a little too much prosecco.
Cast:
Margaret…………….Alison Steadman
Ken……………..Phil Davis
Jane…………….Fenella Woolgar
Ian……………….Richard Herring
Chloe…………..Emily Berrington
Pete………………..Gordon Kennedy
Holly………………...Tia Bannon
Mark………………Fred Haig
Nick………………..Harrison Knights
George……………..Danny Kirrane
Written by Richard Herring
Sound design by Eloise Whitmore
Producer: Polly Thomas
Executive Producers: Jon Thoday and Richard Allen Turner
An Avalon Television production for BBC Radio 4
THU 19:00 The Archers (m0012158)
Writer, Tim Stimpson
Director, Marina Caldarone
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Lilian Bellamy ..... Sunny Ormonde
Harrison Burns ..... James Cartwright
Rex Fairbrother ..... Nick Barber
Toby Fairbrother ..... Rhys Bevan
Eddie Grundy ..... Trevor Harrison
Mia Grundy ..... Molly Pipe
Will Grundy ..... Philip Molloy
Chelsea Horrobin ..... Madeleine Leslay
Kate Madikane ..... Perdita Avery
Lynda Snell ..... Carole Boyd
Robert Snell ..... Graham Blockey
Hazel Woolley ..... Annette Badland
Peggy Woolley ..... June Spencer
Blake ..... Luke MacGregor
Yvonne ..... Grace Cooper Milton
THU 19:15 Front Row (m001215c)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m001215f)
David Aaronovitch presents in-depth explainers on big issues in the news.
THU 20:30 The Spark (m0011tb7)
Sam Bowman and building more houses
Economist Sam Bowman tells Helen Lewis why he thinks building more houses will fix a surprising range of social problems. And he sets out the democratic device he thinks this can bring this about without conflict with so-called 'NIMBYs' - those who prefer not to have new building take place near their homes.
Producer: Phil Tinline
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m001214z)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (m0012141)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m001215j)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
THU 22:45 Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (m001214f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
THU 23:00 Fred at The Stand (m001215l)
Series 3
Gavin Webster, Elaine Malcolmson, Nathan Caton, Anja Atkinson and Liam Farrelly
Fred MacAulay is back at The Stand Comedy Club in Newcastle, doing what he does best - making people laugh.
This series brings another selection of some of the best stand-up comedians working in the UK right now. Some you’ll know and some you won’t know - yet.
It's another cracking line up with comedians from all over the country. Local hero Gavin Webster is clearly having the time of his life performing on his home turf, and it's a joy to listen to. He's joined on stage by one of the stars of BBC Northern Ireland's Soft Border Patrol, Elaine Malcolmson, whose deadpan humour is perfect for an intimate club gig like this.
No stranger to Radio 4, Nathan Caton shows the audience that he's a true supporter of feminism in sport, while relative newcomer Anja Aitkinson shares her bullet proof business plan.
Completing the line up is Liam Farrelly from Scotland, who has a family of sisters, aunties and penguins, and he is gutted that he didn't get invited on his new uncle's stag do.
Fred At The Stand is the closest thing your ears are going to get to an actual night in a comedy club.
Produced by Richard Melvin
A Dabster production for BBC Radio 4
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001215n)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament.
FRIDAY 03 DECEMBER 2021
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m001215q)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 00:30 Antwerp: the Glory Years by Michael Pye (m001215s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001215v)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001215x)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001215z)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m0012161)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0012163)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with writer and broadcaster, Anna Magnusson
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m0012165)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b08y1f9c)
Danielle Meyer on the Gannet
RSPB community and volunteer development officer Danielle Meyer recalls working with gannets on Bempton cliffs in Yorkshire.
Producer Tom Bonnett.
FRI 06:00 Today (m001219h)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m00120cb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Antwerp: the Glory Years by Michael Pye (m001219k)
5. Iconoclasm and the Aftermath
The evocative account of 16th century Antwerp concludes. After decades of religious tolerance, trouble in the cathedral leads to a new order, rebellion and exodus from the city. Michael Begley reads.
Michael Pye's history of Antwerp is a fascinating account of the city during it's golden age. Told through character studies, novels, paintings, songs, inventories and city ordinances, an evocative portrait emerges. Transformed into a trading powerhouse, nationals from all over Europe converged in Antwerp, making deals and enjoying the free and easy manners in a place where scandal and heresy was tolerated, and fortunes could be made almost over night. It's not long before religious divisions, and bellicose heads of state bring about an end to the city's tolerance, and it's financial prowess.
Michael Pye is the author of twelve previous books which have been translated into fifteen languages. He has worked as a journalist, broadcaster and columnist in London and New York.
Image: Salve Felix Antverpia, anonymous woodcut. KU Leuven. Special Collections
Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001219m)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
FRI 11:00 The Spark (m001219p)
Julia Galef on motivated cognition
Julia Galef, author of The Scout Mindset, tells Helen Lewis how ‘motivated cognition’ blocks clear thinking, why that matters for our politics and personal lives alike - and what can be done to escape it.
Producer: Phil Tinline
FRI 11:30 Kevin Eldon Will See You Now (b08nq6ft)
Series 3
The Haunted Ghost of the Scary Studio of Terror
Comedy's best kept secret ingredient returns with another series of his own sketch show. In this episode, Kevin Eldon and his all-important cast return with sketches about bunnies, Beethoven, Dylan Thomas and olives. And we finally discover a use for avant-garde German film director Werner Herzog
Kevin Eldon is a comedy phenomenon. He's been in virtually every major comedy show in the last fifteen years, but not content with working with the likes of Chris Morris, Steve Coogan, Armando Iannucci, Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse, Stewart Lee, Julia Davis and Graham Linehan, he's also created his own comedy series for BBC Radio 4.
After all the waiting - Kevin Eldon Will See You Now.
Also starring Amelia Bullmore (I'm Alan Partridge, Scott & Bailey), Julia Davis (Nighty Night), Paul Putner (Little Britain), Justin Edwards (The Thick Of It), David Reed (The Penny Dreadfuls) and Rosie Cavaliero (Alan Partridge, Harry and Paul).
Written by Kevin Eldon with additional material by Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris (A Touch Of Cloth and, yes, those modern Ladybird books)
Original music by Martin Bird
Produced and directed by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m001219r)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 12:04 Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (m001219t)
10: 'Most of the time it was amazing'
Hattie Morahan reads the final part of Meg Mason's achingly funny and heartbreakingly moving novel.
Martha Friel is clever and beautiful, a brilliant writer who has been loved every day of her adult life by one man, her husband Patrick. So why is Martha now friendless, practically jobless and broken? And why did Patrick decide to leave?
Now Martha, with the help of her devoted, wise-cracking sister and dysfunctional, bohemian parents, has one last chance to find out whether she can write a better ending for herself.
Today: Martha and Patrick finally speak the words that needed to be spoken, in a self-storage centre in Wembley...
Reader: Hattie Morahan
Writer: Meg Mason began her career in journalism, working on The Times, the New Yorker and Vogue. This is her second novel.
Abridger: Antonia Hodgson
Producer: Justine Willett
FRI 12:18 You and Yours (m001219w)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
FRI 12:57 Weather (m001219y)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m00121b0)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Jonny Dymond.
FRI 13:45 Male Order (m00121b2)
Culture of Fear
The online fertility marketplaces promise free access to sperm and the opportunity to include a donor in a child’s life from the beginning, but they come with dangers too. Women report harassment, sexually explicit messages and pressure for sex. But because they are asking for sperm, some say they feel powerless to report these activities to the authorities.
Drew, a long-time donor, tries to raise awareness about the few problematic donors who harass and abuse women in the online donor network, and hosts a support group on Facebook where the women can share their stories of less-than-positive experiences. Meanwhile, former recipient Veronika lurks in the online groups and sends private messages to women she sees speaking with the donor she claims attacked her.
But the way the online marketplace is set up favours the donors, rather than the women who seek them and the people who speak out.
Presenter: Aleks Krotoski
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m0012158)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (m00121b4)
Whoopsie
Ashley is a lively, mixed race 15 year-old who is into show tunes and performing. After waiting many years to be fostered, finally the perfect match is found - a well-heeled, mixed race gay couple, Ken and Victor.
At last, Ashley is living the dream - cool parents, progressive school, his own room with a balcony and sea views in Brighton, exciting new friends and a welcoming place in the local gay football team. But surprises lie in wait for Ashley, his new foster parents and his newly made friends, forcing all sides to make choices.
Produced by an all queer, multi-ethnic production team and cast, including British/West Indian queer writer Rikki Beadle-Blair. Whoopsie is the first of three LGBTQ+ Friday short dramas commissioned by Radio 4 from queer BAME production company Bona Broadcasting. The other two dramas are written by Philip Meeks (February 2022) and internationally acclaimed crime writer Val McDermid (March 2022).
Cast:
Ashley .………………… Jules Chan
Ken ………………….…. Stephen Hoo
Victor ……………. ……. Arun Blair-Mangat
Darragh…….………….. Simon Castle
Kelly …………………… Chanel McKenzie
Written by Rikki Beadle-Blair.
Produced and directed by Turan Ali
A Bona Broadcasting production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 14:45 Witness (b01ky5h3)
Life in the Warsaw Ghetto
Janina Dawidowicz was a nine-year old girl when World War Two engulfed Poland. As Jews, she and her family were soon driven into the Warsaw Ghetto. Seventy years ago, during the summer of 1942, the Nazis began to send the inhabitants of the Ghetto to their deaths in gas chambers. Janina escaped but her family and friends were killed. Hear her memories of the Ghetto - the sights, the characters, the coping mechanisms that people used to survive.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m00121b6)
GQT at Home
Kathy Clugston hosts this week's gardening panel show. Horticultural experts Anne Swithinbank, James Wong and Chris Beardshaw answer questions sent in by listeners across the country.
Producer - Daniel Cocker
Assistant Producer - Aniya Das
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 From Fact to Fiction (m00121b8)
Series in which writers create a fictional response to the week's news
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m00121bb)
Matthew Bannister tells the life stories of people who have recently died, from the rich and famous to unsung but significant.
FRI 16:30 Feedback (m00121bd)
Radio 4's forum for comments, queries, criticisms and congratulations
FRI 17:00 PM (m00121bg)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m00121bj)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The Now Show (m00121bl)
Series 59
Episode 6
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week via topical stand-up and sketches
FRI 19:00 Lemn Sissay's Poetry Rebels (m00121bn)
The Liverpool Poets
Poetry is booming as never before, with audiences flocking to live events and poetry collections flying off the shelves. But how has poetry become a place for anger, protest and passion?
Lemn Sissay traces the roots of revolution back to the 1960s, when the Liverpool poets pushed aside the poetry establishment and started performing live in bars and clubs. Roger McGough and Brian Patten explain how the direct connection they forged with audiences changed poetry and opened up space for new voices to be heard.
Written and presented by Lemn Sissay
Sound design by Charlie Brandon-King
Produced by Richard Lea and Joe Hallam
A Bafflegab production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 19:15 Screenshot (m00121br)
West Side Story
Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story is released on 10 December - the director’s long-delayed, big-budget remake of the influential screen classic, first released 60 years ago. Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore the cinematic connections sparked by this ground breaking musical film.
West Side Story transplants Romeo & Juliet’s star-crossed lovers and warring tribes from Renaissance Italy to mid-20th century Manhattan. Mark looks back at a couple of other movie takes on Shakespeare’s love story with the help of their directors - Abel Ferrara on lost genre gem China Girl and Baz Luhrmann on his iconic 90s Romeo +Juliet, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.
And Ellen investigates the authenticity of the gritty street musical, from West Side Story to YouTube hit Shiro's Story, with the help of actors Rita Moreno and Joivan Wade, and film historian Martha Shearer.
We also hear what Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and national treasure Miriam Margolyes have been watching, as they share their Viewing Notes.
Screenshot is Radio 4’s guide through the ever-expanding universe of the moving image. Every episode, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode journey through the main streets and back roads connecting film, television and streaming over the last hundred years.
Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m00121bz)
Simon Hart MP, Adam Price MS
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from St Andrew's Church, Presteigne with a panel which includes the Secretary of State for Wales Simon Hart MP leader of Plaid Cymru Adam Price MS.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Lead broadcast engineer: Phil Booth
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m00121c3)
Weekly reflections on topical issues from a range of contributors.
FRI 21:00 Male Order (m00121f5)
It costs £1000 for a vial of sperm from a licensed sperm bank, and one vial rarely does the job. But is price the only reason people go to the online fertility marketplaces? In this programme, Dr Aleks Krotoski investigates why people risk their personal safety and the health of themselves and their future children by using this unregulated marketplace.
Donor Alex is looking for a perfect match - a recipient who wants him to be involved from the beginning. MJ and Milo may be just the couple he's looking for. Alex wants to be a "known" donor.
But James isn't interested in being involved with his donor-conceived kids' lives. He has dozens of children through his activities in the donor Facebook Groups - including Kim and Aaron, who have travelled to New York to receive a fresh sample because they hope this will increase their chances of getting pregnant.
But not all donors have good intentions. For some, like Gennadji Raivich who was found guilty of sexually abusing of a recipient in 2014, it's a way to receive sexual gratification in exchange for their sperm.
This marketplace creates opportunities for new kinds of families, but because it is unregulated and run by a core group of donors who have been operating in some cases for a decade, it also creates opportunities for exploitation.
Just because the internet lets us do something, should we?
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m00121c9)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
FRI 22:45 Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (m001219t)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
FRI 23:00 A Good Read (m00120wl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (m00121cf)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament